beardstown

Beardstown's Kylynn Maltby drives a pitch to left field in a win over Midwest Central.

Winning streak for Lady Tigers

It was a busy and productive last week of the season for the Beardstown softball team as they matched their total wins from the rest of the year by winning four straight games. Improved defense was the key as the Tigers committed just twelve errors in five games, a number they have come close to matching in single games several times this year. They would drop their final game of the week last Saturday to finish the regular season at 8-20. The Lady Tigers were scheduled to begin regional play on Monday, May 13 at Macomb.

Soccer

Lady Tigers notch regional soccer win

The evolution of the Beardstown girls’ soccer program continued as the Lady Tigers notched a first-round regional win last Saturday morning.  

The girls shook off a late season mini-slump and crushed DePue Coop 9 to 0 to improve to 11-8-2 on the season. The win sets up a regional championship showdown against Monmouth-Roseville, who is 12-4-3 on the year, on their home field. The game was scheduled for 5:00 p.m. Tuesday, May 14.  The Tigers and the Titans played to a 2-2 tie in Monmouth back on March 27.

Tigers Huerta and Kanda qualify for State

Two Beardstown Lady Tiger high school tracksters have qualified for the IHSA State Track and Field Championships to be held starting Friday, May 17 at Eastern Illinois University.  

The Lady Tigers traveled to Metamora last Wednesday for the Class 2A sectional and finally lucked out with some good weather. Against some very tough competition, the Lady Tigers did a great job of representing Beardstown in their first appearance in Class 2A track.

track

Four Jr. High Tiger tracksters headed to State

Four Beardstown Junior High track and field athletes have qualified for the IESA State Track and Field Finals May 17 and 18 at East Side Center in East Peoria.  

Seventh graders Wade Gaffney, Ashten Guzman, and Ola Quigley and eighth grader Kellen Brown qualified by virtue of their performance at the Class 3A Sectional in Maroa last Saturday. Gaffney placed second and met the qualifying height in the high jump, Guzman placed third in the pole vault and met the qualifying height, Quigley placed third in the long jump, meeting the qualifying distance and Brown won the pole vault to advance.

The Beardstown defense is well positioned as an ominous storm cloud closes in on the soccer field. Photo by Brockschmidt

Winning season for Tiger Soccer

The Beardstown girls’ soccer team won their final game of the regular season to move to 10-8-2 on the season and guarantee a winning record for the third straight year. After the program started its existence with eight consecutive losing seasons, the Tigers will finish above .500 for the third straight time. New coach Francisco Hernandez will lead the Lady Tigers into post season play at 10:00 a.m. May 11, this Saturday, at Monmouth-Roseville against the Depue Coop.  

Beardstown City Hall

Beardstown Police Department to have body cameras by end of year

Beardstown Police Chief Martin Coad approached the Beardstown City Council‘s May 7th meeting to discuss the  Safety Accountability, Fairness and Equity – Today (SAFE-T) Act.This new law makes changes to the Law Enforcement Officer-Worn Body Camera Act to require all law enforcement agencies to implement the use of body cameras within a prescribed timeline. Chief Coad said Beardstown’s timeline is December 31, 2024. That means, the cameras must be purchased, in place and operational by that time or the department will be out of compliance with this new state law.

Police Badge

Thieves break-in two vehicles

While there seems to be rumors of several vehicles broken into, only two have been reported to Beardstown Police.

Chief Martin Coad said break-ins of a vehicle in the 200 block of West 9th Street and one in the 1400 block of Bay Street were reported to his department. Change was taken out of one and a purse was taken from the other vehicle with $200 in it. He said they are investigating.

Police Car

Hit and run was a false call

What appeared to be a hit and run ended up not being the case. Beardstown Police received a call 6:20 p.m. Sunday, May 5 of a female juvenile that had been allegedly struck by an unknown person on a motorcycle at 517 West 7th Street. The juvenile, who was 11 years old, gave police a description of the motorcycle.

Junior High Tigers host relay

The weather turned out beautifully last Wednesday for the annual Beardstown Junior High Tiger Relays. With seven teams making up a very competitive field, Beardstown finished in fourth place as a team in both the boys’ and girls’ contests.  

BASA Logo

BASA Spring Games results

The Beardstown Area Special Athletes participated in the Spring Games last week at Glenwood and will be sending eleven athletes to State competition at Bloomington later this summer.  

Austin Taggart won first in the 200-meter run and second in the standing long jump, Phillip Baer placed fourth in the softball throw, April Balance placed second in the 400-meter walk and third in the softball throw, Trisha Barnett placed third in the 100-meter run and first in the softball throw, Matthew Bradbury won first in the 400 walk and the mini-javelin, and Dallas Burton won the 100-meter walk and placed third in the softball throw.